论通假

On Tong Jia

通假 ,指古代文献中音同音近的文字替代 ,是个训诂学概念。南北朝以后 ,训诂学家已开始采用“通”、“通用”一类新名 ,注意将训诂中的通假与文字学讲的假借相区分。通假字的范围 ,除“本有其字”的那部分假借字外 ,还应包括通常所认为的那种通用字以及古籍中的所谓“别字”。“本字”就是本来已有的字 ,“本”并非指“制字之本意”。通假字所借用的词义 ,可能是被借字的本义 ,也可能是其引申义 ,有时甚至是被借字的假借义。

Tong Jia, refers to the replacement between homonym and characters of similar pronunciation in ancient documents. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties (AD420-589), exegetists began to use new terms 'Tong' (communicate with each other) and 'TongYong' (currency) to distinguish the Tong Jia in exegetics from the Jia Jie in philology. Apart from the characters that already existed, the characters of Tong Jia also often include Tong Yong Zi(interchangeable characters)under normal condition and the so-called 'Bie Zi'(a character misused or mispronounced through confusion with one that sounds or looks like it). 'Bie Zi' refers to the characters that already existed. 'Ben'does not mean the original meaning of the character when it is made. The meaning that Tong Jia Zi substitutes can be the original meaning of the character from which it takes, or the extended meaning, or sometimes even the meaning of the borrowed meaning of the character that it takes.